Latest / Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps / BONUS: Josh on Israel-Palestine Coverage

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BONUS: Josh on Israel-Palestine Coverage · Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

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Welcome along for the ride.
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He says as he puts his glasses on to look more authoritative and begins to read from
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an article written by a very authoritative source, the Middle East correspondent for the
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Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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This came across my feed recently and I thought I'd bring it to your attention.
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Here's the thing, here's the thing.
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Some people sometimes ask me, hey Josh, how old buddy old pal, they says to me, as they
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stops me in the street, they say, hey Josh, hey buddy old pal, so why are you keeping
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it on about this Israel Malaki?
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I was just having dinner the other night with a friend of mine and he was saying, see,
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it's simple.
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All the Jews have to do to stop all the graffitiing of their synagogues and the firebombing
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of their cars and the till Israel signs smear in fake blood on their porches and the smashing
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of the windows of Jewish labor members of parliament and the chance of where are the Jews
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and the nurses who threaten to kill Israeli patients, all I have to do is distance themselves
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from the nasty and tyrannical regime in Israel, disavow the crimes that Israel is committing
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in Gaza and then everything will be hunky-dory.
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The only reason why there's anti-Semitism is because of what Israel is doing in Gaza because
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everybody cares about Gaza and babies and if Jews would just say, Gaza and babies have
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a right to life as much as corrupt old Israeli men who are running the military campaign
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do, then there wouldn't be any anti-Semitism.
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So I says to this guy, I says to him because apparently we're a couple of old gumshoes
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from a 1920s detective film, I says to him, I says, I've spent the past 18 months disavowing
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myself from this regime.
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I have said time and time again, the Benjamin Netanyahu is a corrupt little hack who has
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made cynical alliances with far-right religious nutbags who want to conquer all of Palestine
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in perpetuity and he's done so for cynical political reasons and because he's literally
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afraid of going to jail, why would he go to jail?
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Because say it with me folks, he is a corrupt little hack and the Israeli policy of building
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settlements relentlessly on Palestinian land and bridge of international law was unforgivable
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before October 7th and continues to be unforgivable today.
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Secondarily, the extremity of the conduct of the war does strike fair-minded observers
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as somewhat imprudent, imprudent not just for Israel, certainly imprudent for the Palestinians
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and the Gazans who are getting bombed, but also imprudent for Jews all over the world who,
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yes, do have to endure an uptake in anti-Semitism because of the seeming heartlessness and brutality
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with which the Netanyahu government cavalierly prosecutes this war and its uncompromising position,
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its seeming lack of sympathy for civilian casualties. Can we safely say that the war is
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absolutely necessary as it was conducted in order to secure Israel's security, long-term security?
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No, it's impossible to say that, especially when there are so many political imperatives for
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the ruling classes in Israel to perpetuate the war as long as possible so that they can keep
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being bombastic about it and benefiting politically in terms of their domestic position.
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Of course, there's every right to be cynical about that, and these are conversations that Jews
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around the world are having and have been having since October 7th. If you're only hearing a
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prosionist radically-liquidnic version of an interpretation of Gaza, then either you're not
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listening hard enough or you're mistaking the kinds of noises that people like me make in our
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pushback towards what we regard as being biased and anti-Semitic coverage for a defense of Netanyahu.
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And that is not what it is. We are at risk in the 21st century of falling into tribal camps,
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where one side regards the other side as a cartoon caricature cut out of its worst possible
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motivations, its worst possible interpretations. And each side only sees the most demonically
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deranged version of its opponents. This is what social media does. This is what the algorithm does.
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It doesn't care whether what it serves you is true or accurate or fair-minded. We all know this.
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What it cares about is whether you engage. That means whether you pause on the video,
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watch the video, double tap the video to like the video, comment on the video, share the video,
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that's the only yardstick. And you will do that to things that reaffirm the things you already
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believe just as much as you will do it to things that demonize positions that you don't believe
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and present you with a cartoon version of how terrible they are. And that is what is happening
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more than on any other issue with Gaza and Israel. So excuse me for trying to thread the impossible
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needle of being the nuanced bro who tries to both sides this somewhat and articulate a vision
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that can be understood and agreed with by reasonable people on both sides of the issue rather
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than pandering to your preconceptions and demonizing either Palestinians or Israelis. This shit is
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complex after all. So my response to my friend who was saying to me, look Jews would be in a
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much better position if they were able to just unequivocally denounce Israel and distance
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themselves from the moral crimes of that state is to say we do do that at least the large
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majority or at least plurality of secular-minded, non-religious diaspora Jews, the Mel Brookses and
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the Jerry Seinfelds and the Senator Chuck Schumer's of the world and the Joseph's of the world
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are all wrestling with the moral complexity of the current moment. We're not marching in lockstep
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with the Israeli regime but at the same time we find it a little bit gawling to just march in lockstep
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with every anti-Israeli article that floats across our newsfeed as well because the way that anti-Semitism
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exists in the modern world is not usually that people do what the nurses at that bankstown
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hospital allegedly did and say ridiculous things outright or you know it doesn't usually come
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in the form of skinheads marching down the streets and it doesn't usually come in the form of
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members of parliament, Jewish members of parliament having their windows smashed. The way that it
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insidiously gets reinforced culturally, time and time again in a million different places in
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a million different eras is that the things that Jews do get called out for greater
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scrutiny and greater condemnation than the things that people who aren't quite as filthy and
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suspicious as Jews do. This is why Jews sometimes refer to Israel as the Jew among nations, the one
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who is never quite legit. This is not to say that Israel hasn't done terrible things that the
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war in Gaza isn't awful at gas and babies aren't worthy of being cherished just like every other
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human being and that Netanyahu isn't say it with me a corrupt little hack but it is to say that
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we ought to be able to hold a couple of things in our mind at the same time and regard all that to be
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true and also just notice when the legacy media and people who may have a barrow to push or may
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have some blind spots continue perpetuating those barrows and those blind spots in the media that we
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consume. I can somewhat cop it when the media that we consume is coming from amateurs on social media.
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Obviously I don't like it when I see colleagues of mine on the far virtue signalling pro-Palestinian
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left spewing what seemed to be to me to be subtly coded anti-Semitic messages about Zionists loving
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the blood of babies and Zionists trying to enact their whiteness even though their colonial
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colonizers and so on. I don't like that but I find it understandable because these people are not
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experts, these people are not journalists and these people don't have an understanding of the
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history of the region. What gals me the most is what I'm about to analyze today which is a piece
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in the National Public Broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, my erstwhile employer and
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an institution for which I have tremendous affection and respect which I think deserves
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more funding not less and greater reform to enshrine its duties, its obligations in its charter
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to represent all Australians and to represent the diversity of views in Australia and be a voice
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of forum for all Australians. Lately I think it's lost its way a little bit partly due to social
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justice, partly due to the way that it has tried to both sides everything partly due to the
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a certain level of corporate managerial cowardice that led largely to my departure from that
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organization but I anticipate a promising future for the ABC and I want to be part of it in some
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capacity eventually when it writes itself but it won't write itself unless it gets a whole
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and the kinds of stories, the kinds of things that I'm about to report upon. So let me just read
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from this article we can do a little analysis as we go. I saw it on the ABC app it popped up with
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a bit of clickbait they usually have two headings right they have the official headline that
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is on the article when you click through to it which is usually more reasonable and then they have
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the sort of clickbait one that will get you to click on in the first place and the main headline
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that is in the news feed to get you to click on it reads thusly. This plan would end the Israel
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Palestinian conflict but Israel doesn't like it by Middle East correspondent Eric Tlozek.
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Wow I want to read that story. Here's a secret plan that could end the Israel Palestinian conflict
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and the only impediment is that Israel doesn't like it. Let me check that again it's right here
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I've got it right here it doesn't say that Israel and Hamas don't like it or that Israel and the
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Palestinians don't like it or that this plan is a complete shambles and is really just a rhetorical
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provocation from the Arab world which is just as ludicrous as the Trump ethnic cleansing plan
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but on the other side no no no no no it says this plan would end the Israel Palestinian conflict
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but Israel doesn't like it. Well you've got my click ABC news you've got my click
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so on I click and then the headline in the actual article says Israel comma US reject plan
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to rebuild Gaza without displacing more people I mean how could they this is outrageous
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why would they reject a plan to rebuild Gaza I'm in favor of rebuilding Gaza but what are they
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in favor of like not rebuilding Gaza how dare they the article begins quote but what other option
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is there unquote quote why don't the Arabs come up with a solution unquote and then in
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parachutes our savior the Middle East correspondent this reaction he writes repeated especially
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often in the US media to President Donald Trump's AI washed and humus infused vision of Gaza
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Alago is one of the most frustrating for any long term observer of the Israeli Palestinian conflict
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the Arab League the article says a group of 22 nations this week presented another option formulated
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by Egypt and the internationally recognized Palestinian leadership in the West Bank
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if that sounds like a mouthful the internationally recognized Palestinian leadership in the West Bank
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it's a way of dodging the fact that humus is not involved in this and that the proposal
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makes no mention of humus or how are you going to wrestle Gaza out of the control of the jihadists
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who the Gaza's voted for let's set that to the side for the moment so this is a this is something
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this is an option remember an option that would easily end the Israeli Palestinian conflict work
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not for the intransigence of Israel that's so easy Eric's just trying to tell you how easy it is
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so the Arab League group of 22 nations they've presented another option formulated by Egypt
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and the internationally recognized Palestinian leadership in the West Bank
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in other words the corrupt and moribund moribund PLO which is to its credit not humus
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the article goes on under its proposal Gaza would be governed by a reformed Palestinian authority
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and rebuilt in five years five years it's pretty good it'd be great to be rebuilt in five years
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at a cost of $85 billion i don't know if that's cheap or not
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i can't tell eighty five thousand million dollars maybe that's not a lot
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without the other says without the forced displacement of its nearly two million remaining
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residents well that sounds great tell me more Eric Tlosek Middle East correspondent of the Australian
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Broadcasting Corporation he writes the US almost immediately rejected it
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why why he goes on to say Israel has also rejected the Arab League plan
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this is outrageous why would Israel in the United States reject a plan that would have
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Gaza governed by a reformed Palestinian authority rebuilt in five years only cost 85 billion
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dollars not displace any of the remaining residents if it's endorsed by the Arab League
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and Egypt and the internationally recognized Palestinian leaders from the West Bank
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which for some reason we're not calling the PLO well allow me to continue with the article
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there is and has long been writes Eric a proposal to resolve the whole conflict in accordance
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with international law to guarantee Israel's security and give it normal relations with all its
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Arab neighbors sub headline the Arab Peace Initiative resurfaces it's called the Arab Peace
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Initiative API and the Arab League offered it again in Cairo this week the plan launched in 2002
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re-endorced in 2007 and again in 2017 promises Israel full recognition normalization and critically
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writes the ABC security if it ends it's like you pay Palestinian territories and golem heights
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and accept the establishment of a Palestinian state well that sounds all reason hang on a second
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golem heights the golem heights is that Palestinian land I think that's Palestinian land isn't
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isn't the golem heights part of Israel but they took it back in 1967 after Syria and all of the other
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Arab allies invaded Israel what are the golem heights got to do with the Palestinian with Palestinian
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state so this brings me to the first minor wrinkle the first little thing that goes off in my head
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that starts buzzing around going well hang on maybe this isn't entirely kosher pardon the pun
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maybe something's going on here that I'm not quite understanding maybe it's not quite as simple
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as this plan would end the Israel Palestinian conflict but Israel doesn't like it
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well if your plan to end the Israel Palestinian conflict starts smuggling into the agreement
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things that have nothing to do with the Israel Palestine conflict that might be an initial warning
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sign that you're interlocked as a somewhat disingenuous in the seriousness of the plan
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so the Arab League gets together they've got this plan 22 Arab nations formulated by Egypt
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and the international wrecking by Palestinian leadership of the US bank PLO and they've
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launched it in 2002 they've endorsed it again in 2007 again in 2017 they put it back on the
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table and the only reason why the whole thing isn't fixed is because of US and Zionist
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in transigence right there in the headline right here my hot little hands
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but then part of it the first part of it that we even read about is that Israel would get back
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the golem heights now if you don't know the geography of Israel and the that neck of the woods
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the golem heights is this big hill from which if you had an army you would be able to
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fire missiles all over the northern portions of Israel and fire them relentlessly and because
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you've got line of sight there would be no iron dome that would be able to intercept those missiles
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in time you would I mean Israel would be a sitting duck for any army that stood on the golem heights
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how do we know this because Syria used to sit on the golem heights and it did pocket army there
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and it used to fire on Israel all the bloody time until it made the mistake of trying to invade
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Israel in 1967 Israel won back the golem heights and the likelihood of Israel trusting Syria
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given the instability in Syria since 2011 enough to give this piece of high terrain overlooking
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like a third of Israel back to Syria which could mean ISIS in five years who knows
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is far fetched to say the least it also has absolutely nothing to do with the Palestinian
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cause it's not a new Palestine it's also worth noting that the golem heights at a total square
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area of less than two square kilometers is like one percent of the area of Syria it's about
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10 percent of the area of Israel because Israel is so tiny Israel is I think one eighth
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no I think eight percent of the size of Syria or one eight there's something there is you know
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you can fit many many many many Israel's into the area of Syria and the golem heights is yeah
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nearly 10 percent of Israel it would be about one percent of Syria so why does Syria care about
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it has one purpose for Syria it's right next to Israel and it overlooks
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Israeli population centers that it can fire upon back to the article if you're just joining
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some sub-sac live I'm just analyzing a recent article in the National Public Broadcaster
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in Australia which is emblematic I think of not the harsh sort of bias that you get from
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radically anti Zionist publications but the soft cluelessness of gentle anti-semitism that infuses
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the mainstream legacy press at least in Australia probably in America there's a different tenor
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in return the article goes on to say this is in return for give for ending the occupation of
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the Palestinian territories we're drawing from the golem heights and accepting the establishment
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of the Palestinian state in return the Arab nations would promise to quote consider the Arab
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Israeli conflict ended and enter into a peace agreement with Israel and provide security
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for all the states of the region as well as quote live in peace and good neighborliness
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good neighborliness uh that nice isn't that nice uh live in peace and good neighborliness
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I'm impressed that the journalist who quoted the uh the Arab League proposal there
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with the word neighborliness did so with no editorial comment on just that word I mean even
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that word I would say I would you wouldn't your chapel wouldn't you at least put a little emoji
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next to the word go oh it's a bit uh it's not very good English uh okay so they'll live in peace
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and good neighborliness and the Arab plan the Arab peace initiative was initially supported by the US
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the article says doesn't say when it was launched in 2002 so who knows uh it was adopted as part
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of the so-called road map for peace put forward by the Middle East quartet of the United Nations
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European Union United States and Russia the article then goes on to describe a little bit about
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the uh one state and two state solutions if you've never heard such a thing it says for decades world
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leaders have agreed that the only way to bring about peace between Israelis and Palestinians is
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through a two state solution so why hasn't it happened good question why hasn't it happened
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because from the tone of this article this article which is entitled this plan would end the
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Israel Palestinian conflict but Israel I don't like it yeah you'd be inclined to believe that
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the only reason why a two state solution hasn't happened even though the Arabs have been fully
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on board with this since 1948 they love it they love Israel they love the Jews been in that part
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of the world they said they said it right here in the peace initiative they said neighborliness
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they want to be good neighborliness is you know what's to why the Jews also paranoid all the time
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the Syrians the Libyans the Algerians they love a Jew there's one thing about that neck of the woods
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you can say they love a Jew so why hasn't it happened the article says good question
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it says the the two state solution was revived by then US Secretary of State John Kerry
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as a basis for peace talks in 2013 the offer also guarantees peace with the wider Muslim world
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so that's great these 22 Arab leaders these Arab states almost all of them either dysfunctional
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or authoritarian none of them thriving liberal democracies they've come together and they've
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said not only if you do everything we want you to not only will you will we will sign peace deals
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with you we guarantee peace with the whole Muslim world on whose behalf we somehow speak so
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you know even the jihadists in Indonesia are going to somehow obey this decree it's that
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come will come as a great consolation to anyone who's worried about terrorism in Indonesia
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there is obviously a little wrinkle in all this quite apart from the golem high
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which is that any future deal I'm a big supporter of a two state solution here
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any future deal has to be based not on blind trust right there has to be verification and security
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it can't be assurances it can't be communicates it can't be decrees it can't be signatures on paper
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which are worth about as much as Vladimir Putin's signature will be on any Ukraine peace deal
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you might as well ignore anything that is based on yeah we promise we promise there is no trust
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on either side I wouldn't expect the Palestinians to to to give any credence to an Israeli promise
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and I wouldn't expect the Israelis to give any credence to an Arab promise the relentless
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invasion and has fostered on from both sides has fostered so much mistrust that any solution is
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going to have to be one that's based on security and not on trust so just to clarify who we're talking
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about signing this this agreement right this accord this Arab peace initiative which expects Israel
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to give up very very important strategic assets that it has like the golem heights and to welcome
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back and we'll get to this in a moment the return of all of the descendants of all of the Arabs
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who fled Israel in 1948 Israel is going to give up all of this all of these strategic advantages
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in exchange for a promise from the following 22 countries that they'll always be good
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naveliness these are the countries the signatories Algeria Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq,
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Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
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Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen so you know you can take that to the
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bank can't you I mean why wouldn't you entrust the lives of your Jewish children to those states
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they're great you know take their word to the bank in perpetuity the article goes on to say
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Jordan's foreign minister I'm on safari told a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General
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Assembly quote we're here members of the Muslim Arab Committee mandated by 57 Arab and Muslim
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countries and I can tell you very unequivocally this is the Jordanian foreign minister
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a monarchy an autocracy I can tell you very unequivocally all of us are willing to guarantee the
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security of Israel in the context of Israel ending the occupation and allowing for the emergence
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of a Palestinian state there you go see it's that easy it's that easy they promise and they're not
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that don't have their fingers crossed behind their backs promise that too so you know if you
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if you can't trust I mean if as a Jew you can't trust Libya and Syria and Yemen to be the only
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protectors of your children's lives then really the problem is that you're just an anti Arab
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bigot that's what that's why I have to say to you the article goes on mr safari blamed
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Israel for failing to accept Arab overtures and said its military campaigns and guards are
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in Lebanon had destroyed any remaining goodwill in the Arab world quote the amount of damage
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that this Israeli government has done 30 years of efforts to convince people that peace is possible
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this is the Jordanian foreign minister speaking this Israeli government killed it the amount
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of dehumanization hatred binness will take generations to navigate through he said well I mean he's
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right there in that what's happened in the past 18 months has been terrible for any level of trust
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which is why it's naive and ridiculous for the ABC to report on the Arab peace initiative
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as being anything other than a rhetorical gesture that has no chance of getting anywhere
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because it would require a massive amount of trust on the part of the Israelis and the Arabs
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would basically get everything that they want without having to have any faith or trust in return
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to say that 30 years of efforts to convince people that peace is possible are being
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jeopardized by Israeli intransigence is a bit rich when which side of this conflict is the one
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that has officially been on board with the two state solutions since 1948 I mean as soon as the
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Israeli state was instantiated all of its Arab neighbors invaded it to try to eradicate it do we
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have to rehash this history in 1967 they tried to wipe it out in 1973 they tried to wipe it out
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again you know only grudgingly kicking and screaming has the Arab world been dragged towards a
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recognition that a two state solution is what they're going to have to settle for the general
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attitude that it's still seen today in the opinions allegedly of those nurses in the Sydney
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hospital who were arrested for their comments which are very widespread opinions throughout the
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Arab and Muslim world is that Israel is a fundamentally illegitimate state that is sitting on top
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of another people's land and there shouldn't be any Jews there at all really or if they are there
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they should be living as a minority in an Arab Palestinian state so it's a bit rich for the
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Jordanian foreign minister to be making proclamations about the damage that this Israeli government
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has done to 30 years of efforts to convince people that peace is possible the efforts to convince
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people that peace is possible if there's a two state solution has been the driving impetus of
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Israeli policy up until I suppose 2008 when Netanyahu and his cronies seized power because of the
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amount of Israeli disillusionment with their efforts to make peace largely because of the second
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interfarter that the Palestinians launched against Israel at a time when Israel was actively pursuing
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peace and yes they were building settlements in the West Bank and yes there were lots of factions
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inside a clumsy messy democracy that make a simple narrative complicated you can always cherry
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counter examples but the general thrust of Israeli policy between 1967 and 2008 was to repeatedly
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try to figure out a way to stop occupying the Palestinian territories in exchange for a two-state
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solution and that two-state solution has always been predicated in Arab minds on the return of all
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of the Palestinian refugees into Israel proper or the eradication of Israel as a Jewish state and
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even this Arab peace initiative which is being reported on by Australia's national public broadcaster
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with a headline this plan would end the Israel Palestinian conflict but Israel doesn't like it
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even this plan includes the full return of all of the descendants of all of the Arabs who fled
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Israel in 1948 back to Israel proper that is the end of Israel as we know it the doubling or more
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of its population and complete alteration of its demography and ethnicity so forgive me
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Jordanian foreign minister and the ABC Middle East correspondent who cluelessly quotes him
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uncritically if I'm somewhat skeptical about why 30 years of efforts to convince people that
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peace is possible are now being undone by Netanyahu's corrupt war you know it's three seconds ago in
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cultural time that the Arab side even came around to the idea of a two-state solution don't give me
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this 30 years of efforts to convince people that peace is possible nonsense in 1948 Israel was
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invaded they had camped David in 1978 they did the Oslo Accords in 1993 that it Oslo 2 in 1995
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that he camped David in the year 2000 they withdrew from Gaza in 2005 Prime Minister Ehud O'Mat
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offered made the 2008 peace offer which was the most generous peace offer that Israel has ever
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made so it's come on it's a little rich it's a little rich yes the Arabs have always just been
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just so willing so willing to accommodate Israel's existence the Jordanian foreign minister goes on
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to say we have no partner for peace in Israel there is a partner for peace in the Arab world
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and that's why the international community needs to move this is true as far as it goes it is
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one of the enormously depressing aspects of the current conflict and the current Israeli regime
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that there is no real partner for peace in Israel a friend of mine who's a colleague who writes for
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one of the big American newspapers as a correspondent made the analogy to the end of apartheid and said
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that even if there is someone on the Palestinian side who could be a Mandela for example Mawan
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Bagouti who's this Palestinian resistance leader who's currently in an Israeli prison and
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by many accounts is you know a possible candidate to lead a Palestinian
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a secular peaceful Palestinian future even if he were a Mandela on the Israeli side there is no
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FW Declack and you need all the stars to align at once to get anywhere so this is a valid
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criticism that Israel really is not does not offer any optimistic pacifistic vision for the future
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but to characterize that and contrast it the way that the Jordanian foreign minister and the
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Israeli Broadcasting Corporation by application uncritically is by quoting him in an article with
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such an outrageous headline is to make a false equivalence it's the quotas we have no partner
33:38
for peace in Israel there is a partner for peace in the Arab world but that's not equivalent
33:46
the equivalent of Israel in terms of the current war is Hamas that's the counterpart to Israel
33:54
this is a fight between Israel and Hamas or if you want to expand the purview of the analogy
34:02
between Israel and the governments of Palestine it's not a battle between Israel and the Arab world
34:12
if one side of the equation is going to be the Arab world the other side of the equation should
34:16
be the Western world or something like that and there the analogy falls apart completely
34:21
yes you have no partner for peace in Israel and you also have no partner for peace in Palestine
34:27
you have zero partners for peace if you're talking about having a partner for peace in the Arab world
34:32
well sure you've got a partner for peace in the West you've even got a partner for peace in the
34:35
majority of Jews in the world who would gladly settle for a two-state solution that the current
34:41
Netanyahu government would not tolerate so it's the whole thing is just merely maled
34:49
guileless clueless overly generous towards an Arab interpretation of things and relentlessly
34:59
obstinately critical of the the legitimate sense among Israelis that they are a besieged country
35:09
in a sea of untrustworthy people who have constantly tried to invade and kill them like
35:13
if there's no recognition that that is an emotion that's on the table the whole thing is just framed
35:19
as if there are these obstinate assholes who parachute it in like as if the writer here who's
35:25
a Middle East correspondent for a major news organization is ignorant of the fact that the
35:29
majority of Jews in Israel are from the Middle East and were kicked out of other Arab countries
35:34
or fled other Arab countries who have basically no Jews in them now because they all were driven
35:40
into Israel and that they are indigenous to that region that if anyone was doing an
35:46
acknowledgement of country or a land acknowledgement a welcome to country in Israel it would be the Jews
35:52
who can trace their ancestry back to the kingdom of King David now this doesn't mean that the Palestinians
35:57
don't also have a right to their territory unsullied by a Jewish occupation by Israeli forces
36:04
but it does mean that to talk about this conflict as if the problem is that there are in
36:09
Transigent Israelis and Beneficent welcoming Arabs who are just constantly being rebuffed
36:17
by an Israeli regime that what tried to find peace with them in 1993 and 1995 and 2000 and 2008
36:27
while all the while while there were 1500 Palestinian drive-by shootings in the first year of the
36:33
second interfered alone and the Israelis were just supposed to cop that and still see the world
36:41
through the perspective apparently of the ABC's Middle East correspondent which is that they are
36:45
in Transigent Israelis who are putting onerous burdens on peace negotiations that they initiated
36:55
whilst innocent Arabs are just doing their thing shooting from cars 1500 times in the first year
37:02
and assassinating Israelis on their streets like it's topsy-turvy you know we don't treat other
37:09
conflicts this way we don't we don't talk about Russia and Ukraine in this way where we get so
37:15
confused about who the aggressors are and who the victims are now of course this is massively
37:22
complicated by the existence of the barbarism the Gaza war because it occludes everybody's vision
37:27
and makes the Israeli government seem so unsympathetic but that shouldn't change the way
37:32
that we understand history it shouldn't change the skepticism with which we view the pronouncements
37:38
of people like the Jordanian foreign minister when he says that the main reason why there is an
37:43
erosion of trust in the peace process is because of Israel after Arabs have been trying for decades
37:49
to you know convince people that peace is possible and that there is no partner for peace in Israel
37:54
but there is a partner for peace in the Arab world yes there's a partner for peace in the Arab
37:58
world on their terms on their outrageous terms which involve Israel giving Syria the Golan Heights
38:04
and dissolving itself as a Jewish state by welcoming back in the descendants of every Arab who left
38:09
Israel in 1948 millions and millions and millions of people sure on those terms of course the Arabs
38:14
are willing to tolerate peace I mean on those terms you know if you gave me equally favorable terms
38:22
then the West would also be hugely in favor of peace I mean that this sort of ignores the fact
38:28
that most of the Western world is not even on Israel's side not the bulk of the people the bulk of
38:33
the public opinion in Western Europe and Australia sees Israel as an aggressor and the Palestinians
38:39
as a pluffy innocent people not recognizing that the Palestinians are a proxy and a prop that are
38:45
sadly and tragically being manipulated by cynical Arab leaders supported by well-meaning douchebags in
38:51
the West to punish Israel and to create intentional cleavages between Jews and the rest of the Arabs
39:00
so yes it's a problem there's no partner for peace in Israel it's also a problem there's no
39:04
part there's no partner for peace in Hamas but that is not mentioned by the Julian foreign
39:09
minister and it's not mentioned by the ABC's Middle East correspondent in this piece
39:14
next subhead headline of this article says Israel comma Hamas rejected plan before
39:21
oh that's a funny word Hamas we haven't heard it in the first half of the article it hasn't been
39:28
mentioned at all do you remember that clumsy clunky reference to the what did they what did they call
39:34
the Palestinian Authority into the internationally recognized Palestinian leadership in the West Bank
39:41
so as not to draw attention to the fact that the Palestinian Authority has no legitimacy over Gaza
39:46
because the Gaza's elected Hamas I mean to be fair only once Israel comma Hamas rejected plan
39:54
before the headline says interesting so we've heard so hang on a second just wait a wait a second
40:00
wait a second wait a second don't you remember that the beginning of this article and hello if
40:06
you're just joining us on the sub stack live stream or I'll fill you in a little bit we're talking
40:10
about an article on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the national public broadcaster
40:15
and you know it would be an understatement to say it got my goat a little bit apart in the French
40:22
but it got my goat because the headline was this plan would end the Israeli Palestinian conflict
40:29
but Israel doesn't like it and I thought why they've got a plan it would end the Israel
40:37
Palestinian conflict and the only impediment is that Israel doesn't like it so I start reading
40:43
and I go through one page two page three pages and then I get to this little subheading
40:50
in the article it's a you know it's this is not this article is more than a thousand words
40:54
so you would think there'd be plenty of time to flesh out what the journalist wants to say
41:00
but it takes it takes many hundreds of words before we get to a subheading where we see the word
41:04
Hamas for the first time Israel comma Hamas rejected plan before but how in a second
41:10
do you remember the headline the headline says this plan would end the Israel Palestinian conflict
41:15
but Israel unlike it it doesn't say this plan would end the Israel Palestinian conflict
41:20
but Israel and Hamas don't like it it just says Israel unlike it
41:29
you could be forgiven for thinking that this is the soft bigotry of low expectations of Palestinians
41:35
but we'll get to that in a moment Israel comma Hamas rejected plan before Israel writes the
41:42
journalist despite positive statements from former Prime Minister Shimon Perez has generally
41:48
shown little enthusiasm for the proposal okay okay yes we get that Israel doesn't want the proposal
41:53
but the headline just said that Israel and Hamas don't want the proposal so what about Hamas tell
41:58
me what their position is the article goes on to say and then Prime Minister Ariel Sharan rejected
42:03
it outright when it was first floated in 2002 okay okay okay I get that Israel doesn't like this
42:08
stupid Arab proposal but tell me about Hamas's position the article goes on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
42:15
said in 2016 that the proposal could not form the basis for new peace negotiations with the Palestinians
42:20
I get it we get it the Israelis don't like this cock-a-mainly scheme to hand back the
42:27
Golan Heights to Syria and import and more than double their population by importing Arabs some of
42:33
whom are radical jihadists into their midst we get that they don't like that but the whole
42:40
tenor of this article is about how Israel is the problem not about what Hamas says I want to know
42:46
what Hamas thinks of the deal and I quote Hamas has also previously rejected it and a Hamas suicide
42:54
bomber killed 30 people at a Passover dinner in Netanya the day the initiative was launched in Beirut
42:59
in 2002 and that ladies and gentlemen is pretty much the extent of this thousand plus word articles
43:10
reference to the government of Gaza in this analysis of why the Arab peace initiative
43:22
is stalled the entire tenor is about how there is this Arab peace initiative
43:30
that everyone but the Israelis and the Americans are on board with and the Israelis are blocking
43:35
this reasonable proposal there's one paragraph buried in the middle of the article about how
43:44
the elected government of Gaza the jihadist death cult Hamas voted for by a majority of
43:53
garsons obviously not the garsons who are alive today tragically because Hamas doesn't really
43:58
believe in elections as most of the member states of the 22 nation Arab League which came up with
44:04
this cock-a-mainly peace plan also don't they also don't believe in elections but we're supposed
44:08
to trust them and entrust them with the future of the Jewish people as they rail and spew
44:15
anti-Semitic bile constantly and have done four decades so this one paragraph in the middle of
44:23
the article Hamas has also previously rejected it and a Hamas suicide bomber killed 30 people
44:29
at a Passover dinner the day it was launched I mean kind of relevant isn't it kind of relevant
44:38
that the government of one of the parties in the current conflict also rejects the peace plan
44:47
the Arab League basically just wants to swoop in and pretend that a jihadist death cult is not
44:53
running Gaza as if to simply ignore it will make that go away and as if the extremism and violent
45:04
Jew hatred of the garson government wasn't fundamental to the current crisis as if Israel just
45:12
sort of woke up one day and decided to punish garsons because it likes punishing garsons and it had
45:17
nothing to do with the fact that it had just had its citizens invaded and raped and slaughtered
45:23
by a Jew hating neo-Nazi islamist jihadist cult so there it is one paragraph Hamas previously
45:32
rejected the plan and when the initiative was launched Hamas suicide bomber killed 30 people I
45:37
mean I'm sorry to laugh you know these are people's real lives but you've got one side which rejects
45:46
the plan and has a thousand plus word article written about it and another side that rejects
45:54
the plan and the means by which that side rejects the plan is not just to issue a communicate about
46:00
it is not just to stand up and say we reject it but to think that the best way to reject it is to
46:08
blow themselves up and kill 30 Jews on Passover okay but they're you know both sides both sides
46:16
are to blame here in fact really only one side is to blame you saw the headline this plan would
46:22
envy Israel policy in conflict but Israel them like it they couldn't ask the Hamas suicide bomber
46:28
what he thought when he blew up 30 people at the Passover dinner in Natania in 2002 because
46:33
unfortunately he's he's just pink mist now but you know I'm sure he I'm sure he would have been
46:40
open to the to the Arab League deal if only the Israelis hadn't been so mean the article goes on
46:47
to say there are many sticking points in the API that's the Arab Peace Initiative for Israeli
46:53
governments particularly the demand for a quote unquote just solution regarding Palestinian refugees
47:00
in neighboring countries hmm the article goes on to say quote I'll never accept a solution that
47:07
is based on their return to Israel any number then Prime Minister Ehud Ahmed said of the re-endorced
47:14
Arab Peace Initiative in 2007 well that sounds bad doesn't it that sounds bad why would the
47:24
Prime Minister Ehud Ahmed in 2007 say I'll never accept a solution that is based on the return of
47:31
Palestinian refugees in neighboring countries in any number and why would Israel reject a just
47:38
solution and why would the journalists call it a just solution even in quotation marks without
47:45
qualifying what the return of Palestinian refugees in neighboring countries would mean for Israel
47:54
allow me to do the job that the Middle East correspondent in this article does not do which is
48:00
to clarify what the objections might be there were broadly three of them to returning every descendant
48:06
of everyone who fled every Arab who fled Israel in 1948 the first is security issues
48:14
and influx of refugees could increase tensions in Israel to put it mildly and again I have made
48:26
friends with Palestinian refugees who live in Lebanon who are stateless manipulated by Arab governments
48:36
they are pawns they are political sort of tools of cynical Arab regimes if the Palestinian friend
48:46
who I made who was a refugee in Lebanon has no ability to travel he has no Lebanese work permit
48:54
he has no Lebanese anything even though he has never been to nor seen Israel or Palestine
49:01
he when I ask him where he comes from he sites the town in Israel proper that his the not his parents
49:08
not his grandparents but his great grandparents were evicted from that is his home the narrative that
49:16
that is his home is perpetuated and manipulated by Arab regimes in order to inflame the conflict he's
49:24
not allowed to work he's not allowed he's not given any opportunities for example to go and build
49:31
stadiums in Doha even though Qatar has the ability and is shipping in vast numbers of people from
49:38
India and Pakistan and Bangladesh to build its infrastructure it doesn't allow any Palestinians the
49:43
Arab leaders who are incredibly racist behind closed doors about Palestinians they regard them
49:48
as vermin they tease them they think that there is limits in jihadists these are these there is
49:54
no love lost between the Palestinian people and the Arab dictators who proclaim to care so loudly
50:00
about their fate they don't let them in Saudi Arabia has recent how many Syrian refugees after
50:05
the Syrian civil war did Saudi Arabia resettle at the same time as Germany was resetting a million
50:11
zero zero they want no truck with jihadists what they want is for Israel to bring in millions and
50:19
millions and millions and millions of potentially jihadist sympathetic Arabs who were evicted from
50:25
that territory back into Israel as well as giving the Palestinians an independent state not only do
50:32
the Palestinians get a state they also get to return in any number they want basically if they can
50:37
prove that they are the child of a child of a child of someone who was a refugee from an area
50:47
in Israel in 1948 I mean this is like me going back to Poland to try to claim the town that the
50:54
Nazis kicked my grandmother out of so there's security issues obviously also worth noting the first
51:02
thing that Egypt did after October 7 after the October 7th attacks send tanks to the border of
51:09
Gaza to make sure that not a single Gaza got out into Egypt so you know spare me your concern
51:17
you know the Arab Arab League countries so when we're talking about what this ABC journalist
51:24
uncritically calls a just solution regarding Palestinian refugees in neighboring countries what we're
51:29
talking about is that there would be one rule for Arabs and one rule for the Jews all the Jews
51:33
who were kicked out of places like Iraq and Lebanon and Syria in the 30s and 40s and you know forced
51:41
to basically under threat of death or pogroms to go to Israel who now find Israel home they would
51:47
not get a right of return back to the Arab states but all of the Arabs who were kicked out of where
51:52
Israel now is would have a right of return to Israel thereby basically subsuming the Jewish
51:58
population of Israel and creating yet another of the dozens and dozens and dozens of Arab states
52:05
that already exist so security issues the influx of refugees that's one objection to
52:13
the right of return an unfettered right of return the demographic concerns are another which
52:18
I just alluded to Israel would no longer be controlled by Israelis basically I mean imagine doubling
52:23
the population overnight of people with a different religion and different ethnicity although
52:30
I suppose a lot too much can be made of the difference in ethnicity since you know what it's
52:34
all humus and falafel at the end of the day but you know they don't see it that way and the other
52:40
objection is that there are alternative solutions that are equally good you know importing everybody
52:45
who has some tangential relationship back to original the original Israeli territory is so
52:51
complicated and problematic and basically means the annihilation of Israel it's so unrealistic
52:57
and it's so far from what we expect other countries to do that the simplest solution is the one
53:02
that Olmer offered in 2008 and that was you know sort of contemplated in some of the earlier
53:08
peace negotiations which is you have some sort of symbolic return of refugees who are who have a
53:13
very close tie to a particular part of Israel and then you compensate financially I mean if the
53:18
Arab states care so much then they can contribute to a massive fund which compensates people
53:24
for having to resettle into the Palestinian territories you know not everyone gets to live in
53:28
exactly the same place in perpetuity through the generations the world is messy the founding of
53:33
Australia was messy the founding of the United States was messy Europe has been driven by wars
53:38
all over the place you know populations shift and change and as long as Palestinians have a safe
53:44
place to live as long as there can be a Palestinian state and a Palestinian territory
53:50
I'm not saying that the status quo is good I'm saying that if you created a such a Palestinian
53:54
state then that should be the place to which Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian diaspora
53:58
return not to the beaches of Tel Aviv it is not serious for the ABC to treat this Arab peace
54:07
initiative as serious it's not serious it's a rhetorical move just like Donald Trump's artificial
54:15
intelligence video of Elon Musk eating hummus on the gas and ritty era was a rhetorical move nobody
54:23
covered that as if it was legitimate well a few people did a few people were that gullible but most
54:28
people understood that that was trolling but nobody treats the Arab response as if this is trolling
54:35
it is Arab leaders are playing rhetorical games which are just as provocative and silly and all
54:42
or nothing as Trump's ethnic cleansing plan is this is not a serious proposal for Israel to
54:49
unilaterally hand the Golan Heights a mountain over which from which you can fire onto massive
54:55
Israeli populations back to what jihadists in Syria this is not serious it's not serious that any
55:05
Israeli government is going to welcome in all of the descendants of everyone who fled Israeli
55:11
territory in 1948 at the same time as also giving them a state and at the same time as also
55:16
not insisting on a right for Jews to return to other parts of the Arab world which they were
55:20
kicked out of this is not serious everyone knows that any peace plan will not include a general
55:28
right of return as articulated in the power of peace initiative and referred to hilariously
55:34
and uncritically by the ABCs Middle East correspondent as a just solution for Palestinian refugees
55:41
and neighboring countries everyone knows that in fact what it will be when there is a two-state
55:48
solution is a controlled symbolic number of Palestinian refugees returning to Israel
55:57
now where have I heard that before I have heard that before repeatedly from Israeli governments
56:05
prior to the current corrupt Netanyahu regime that we've had since 2008
56:11
Al-Met's own plan the year after he's quoted in this article as having rejected a single Palestinian
56:20
refugee Al-Met's own plan involved the return of 5,000 refugees over five years for family reunification
56:27
it's not a lot but it's certainly not nothing and it's not irrelevant one would think in an article
56:34
like this before Al-Met's plan was the Barak Ehud Barak plan Ehud Barak the Israeli Prime Minister
56:44
offered to accept a limited number of Palestinian refugees under humanitarian grounds as part of the
56:48
peace deal negotiations with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David in 2000 prior to that
56:54
in 1993 at the Oslo Accords Yitzhak Rabin acknowledged the refugee issue and was open to
57:01
discussions on humanitarian cases of refugee returns so in 93 with Rabin in 2000 with Barak
57:08
and in 2008 with Al-Met you had Israeli Prime Ministers three Israeli Prime Ministers over the
57:14
space of 15 years all talking and negotiating about how many Israeli refugees were going to return
57:21
to how many Palestinian refugees rather were going to return to Israel proper under the two-state
57:27
peace plan that they were negotiating and yet the one quote that this ABC article
57:34
sites is then Prime Minister Ehud Al-Met saying I'll never accept a solution that is based on
57:40
their return to Israel any number I don't know where that quote is from I haven't been able to
57:45
find that quote it's not representative and it's weird that that's the only thing that is
57:52
quoted when the year after the same man said that he also then offered in a very concrete way
57:59
for 5,000 Palestinian refugees to return as a symbolic right of return
58:06
way of addressing the right of return issue and it's again worth just noting in Israel you have
58:12
Arabs on the Supreme Court you have Arabs in parliament 20% of the population are Israeli Arabs
58:18
how many Jews are on the Supreme Court in any Arab country how many Jews have not been
58:22
handed out of every single Arab or Muslim land if you are an Arab in Israel you are in a better
58:29
position than almost anywhere else in the Middle East if you are a Jew anywhere else in the Middle
58:35
East you are in danger of being lynched that's the reality from an Israeli perspective there are
58:42
lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of Arab countries and they don't necessarily
58:47
need one more but government after Israeli government has been willing to give them one more
58:53
just not one more that sits on top of the entirety of Israel one more that's next to it
59:00
again none of this is to say that the Gaza war is legitimate or that Netanyahu is anything
59:05
other than say it with me a corrupt little hack what it is to say is that we shouldn't allow
59:11
the barbarism of the Gaza war to rewrite the history of the Middle East and to contaminate our
59:16
objectivity when we're assessing the inability over the course of decades of both sides to
59:22
reach a peace accommodation it is absurd to regard the Arab peace initiative as this easy simple
59:31
generous solution which is only impeded by Israeli intransigence shall I read the headline again
59:39
shall we read it one more time for the dummies this plan would end the Israel Palestinian conflict but
59:45
Israel doesn't like it so I'll look I'll just quote one more thing another obstacle writes the
59:54
article is Israel's loss of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank is as part of any withdrawal
59:59
and I completely agree that's outrageous the successive Israeli governments have been total
1:00:05
shitheads with regard to settling the West Bank there shouldn't be any settlements in the West
1:00:09
Bank there shouldn't be any settlements on Palestinian land there used to be settlements in Gaza as
1:00:13
well and after the Palestinian the second interferer where Israelis were getting blown up in cafes
1:00:19
and on buses and their children targeted in nightclubs drive by assassination suicide bombings all
1:00:25
over the joint it was the right wing prime minister Ariel Sharon who withdrew from Gaza and literally
1:00:32
dragged Israeli residents out forcibly and got the army out of Gaza and then there was not an
1:00:39
immediate blockade of Gaza as some people think there was not immediate punitive actions against
1:00:44
Gaza they weren't trying to turn it into an open air refugee camp they were extremely constructive
1:00:48
about trying to have a Gaza that functions briefly and then there were elections largely pressed
1:00:56
by the Bush administration which in the wake of 9-11 was big up on the idea of fostering democracy
1:01:02
throughout the Arab world and wasn't crazy about just handing Gaza over to the Palestinian Authority
1:01:06
they were you know Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush they were all pro-democracy let the
1:01:10
Gazans decide their own fate well the Gazans voted for Hamas and that was it and it was only after
1:01:16
Hamas came to power and started building tunnels and bombs and rockets that Israel imposed the blockade
1:01:23
on preventing goods and services from going in and out of Gaza although that was very relaxed
1:01:28
in the in the lead up to October 7th and there was a lot of traffic across the border I mean the
1:01:33
one country people talk you know about why you know why doesn't Israel do more for the Gazans
1:01:37
there was only one country where Gazans went a foreign country to work but they were there were
1:01:41
thousands of Gazans every day who were crossing the border into Israel and working in local Israeli
1:01:47
industry and in farms they weren't being allowed to cross into Egypt the Egyptians didn't get a
1:01:51
shit about them no other Arab country has given them the time to day they haven't allowed them to
1:01:55
do any work whatsoever they hate them anyway that's all by the by the article ends by saying
1:02:03
it's an article that national public broadcaster of Australia by the by its Middle East correspondent
1:02:08
the article ends by saying many figures Israeli and Arab believe peace is ultimately the strongest
1:02:15
guarantee of Israeli security the Arab peace initiative urges quote Israel to consider its policies
1:02:23
and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well that's nice
1:02:35
it's a 1000 plus word article the word Israel is mentioned 41 times the word Hamas twice
1:02:47
well three times if you include it if you count it twice in one sentence when it's making the same
1:02:52
point but there are two references to the existence of Hamas in 36 paragraphs and 41 mentions of Israel
1:03:04
who gets to have agency in this world is it not a little bit bigoted to pretend that the only
1:03:14
Arab groups who actually want what they say they want are the ones who say they want what we
1:03:21
want them to want like the corrupt and cynical leaders of the Arab League of those 22 countries who
1:03:28
signed this Arab peace initiative that the Australian public broadcaster is so fornally fond of
1:03:38
only their opinions matter because only their opinions align with our opinions and our preconceptions
1:03:44
we don't trust jihadists and extremists and gars and anti semites and death cultists and islamists
1:03:54
to believe what they say they believe we don't give them credit give them a bit of credit
1:04:02
give the genocidal Jew hating Arabs a little credit they are serious you know Hamas was serious
1:04:11
it is insane to write a thousand plus word article that seems to erase the existence of jihadists as
1:04:20
being a factor here as if this is just mean Israeli missiles versus innocent gars and children
1:04:31
there's another player here there's another agent why are we not giving agency to Hamas why were he
1:04:41
mentioning them twice there is no solution without addressing security and there is no addressing of
1:04:50
security without addressing jihadism it's that simple you can ignore it all you want but reality
1:04:57
isn't going to ignore it once you come to the agreement that you think is going to instantiate
1:05:02
peace you can write all the peace deals you want but at some point a bus is going to blow up or a
1:05:08
plane is going to get hijacked or a rocket is going to fall from the sky and it's not going to obey
1:05:14
what the signatories on a piece of paper wanted it to you can't just erase this stuff away by
1:05:21
ignoring it by covering your ears and saying la la la la la as long as we don't say the word
1:05:26
Hamas it's not going to exist everything's going to be hunky-dory look i have a copy of the final
1:05:33
communicate of the Arab peace initiative here i was going to read it out but look we've already been
1:05:39
going for more than an hour here so i suppose everyone's probably getting a little bit bored of me
1:05:43
banging on about it but i think it's just worth noting that the final communicate from the 22
1:05:50
Arab countries which is characterized here as being a fairly simple and easy
1:05:57
or it's certainly common-sensical solution to the Arab to the Israeli Palestinian conflict
1:06:03
whose only roadblock is that Israel doesn't like it
1:06:09
that the actual text of it spends a lot of time talking about the right of return for Palestinian
1:06:15
refugees which we've already said is i mean whatever you think about the morality of it
1:06:21
even if you thought that it was a great moral triumph to have Israel sort of cease to exist as a
1:06:25
place for Israelis and to just become subsumed into some metapan Palestinian Arab state even if
1:06:32
you thought that was a good thing it's just a non-starter it's not going to happen without
1:06:36
nuking Israel out of existence they're not going to they're not going to allow to happen
1:06:39
they know it would basically no no no other state would allow its population to double overnight
1:06:44
with immigrants um the the API says to prioritize the full implementation of the cease-fire
1:06:52
agreement holding all parties especially Israel to their commitments i love this i love how
1:06:57
open they are at least they're more honest the 22 Arab states that wrote this uh or that signed
1:07:02
onto it after Egypt and the Palestinian liberation organization Palestinian Authority uh wrote it
1:07:07
because then there are more honest than the Middle East correspondent of the national public
1:07:11
broadcast that in Australia because they literally say we prioritize the full implementation
1:07:16
of the cease-fire agreement holding all parties especially Israel to their commitments
1:07:22
like they don't allow the double standard to go unstated they're just like we have commitments
1:07:28
from Hamas we have commitments from Israel and we expect all parties to to honor those commitments
1:07:35
but we especially expect Israel to do so basically the jihadists can sort of get away with being
1:07:40
jihadist you know jihadist going to do what jihadist going to do you can't expect those
1:07:45
you know dirty little Arabs to be able to understand how they should uh how what what an
1:07:51
agreement means you know you can't expect Hamas to uphold an agreement that seems to be the
1:07:55
attitude of the Arab League an incredibly racist and condescending attitude from Arab leaders
1:08:02
towards the Arab street that they so revere towards the Palestinian people who deserve
1:08:08
self-determination who deserve to be honored and respected and to have their wishes taken
1:08:13
seriously not treated as if they don't exist and they don't have agency by other Arab leaders
1:08:20
and by well-meaning pro-Palestinian activists in the West so it is nice to see that they're just
1:08:27
open about the fact that they do not expect the Arab side of any agreement to uphold its
1:08:35
to honor its its agreements they only expect Israel to do so free pass free pass we urge the
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international community says the communicate to participate in accelerating Gaza's rehabilitation
1:08:48
following the devastation of Israeli aggression that's how they characterize the war in Gaza
1:08:55
like Israel again just woke up one morning and there was no other actor here there is no
1:09:00
no Hamas of course Hamas is not mentioned in this communicate um they go on to say that they
1:09:07
emphasize the need to fully implement the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon so we've expanded from
1:09:13
Palestine to Syria and the Golan Heights to Lebanon and adhere to UN Security Council Resolution
1:09:18
1701 you know what I say to that I say ha I say ha about you and Security Council Resolution
1:09:27
1701 this was a security council resolution that brought an end to the Lebanon war between Israel
1:09:34
and Hezbollah on the 11th of August 2006 and what it required was that Hezbollah which had been
1:09:42
sitting in southern Lebanon being armed by Iran and firing rockets into Israel it required Hezbollah
1:09:50
to withdraw from southern Lebanon and it required Lebanese and United Nations peacekeeping forces
1:09:54
that's unify to help stop Iran from smuggling weapons for Hezbollah to fire in Israel from
1:10:02
from Lebanon and as soon as this UN resolution went into power went into effect what happened in
1:10:08
2006 Hezbollah re armed they stayed in the positions they weren't supposed to stay in the Lebanese
1:10:15
army and the UN had no ability or willingness to intercept or get into a hot war with Iranian
1:10:21
proxies who were funneling weapons to Hezbollah and basically Hezbollah maintained its military
1:10:26
positions in areas where only Lebanese and United Nations forces were supposed to be and continued
1:10:31
firing on Israel now technically some people say that Israel was the one who broke that United
1:10:37
Nations security council resolution because they continued to fly spying missions over Lebanese
1:10:43
into Lebanese airspace but it was them flying spy missions into Lebanese airspace that revealed to
1:10:48
the world that Hezbollah was not keeping its part of the deal either so you know who broke the
1:10:54
security council resolution 1701 yeah you could say it was Israel for flying spy sorties but the
1:11:01
spy sorties were catching Hezbollah and the United Nations and the Lebanese army from failing to
1:11:06
enforce security council resolution 1701 in the first place so again it's a bit hilarious the
1:11:14
double standards here it's like you know Arabs don't have any control over themselves they're
1:11:18
just going to continue arming themselves and trying to kill Jews but the Israelis are held
1:11:24
accountable for every minor misstep of you know every breach of international agreements did you
1:11:29
know that Israel the number of United Nations resolutions against Israel is more than I believe
1:11:36
every other country in the world combined so you add up the misdeeds of North Korea Saudi Arabia
1:11:44
every other basket case dictatorship and all of them combined and not as bad as Israel according
1:11:50
to the United Nations in its haste to pass resolutions so this is the case with with Lebanon as
1:11:57
well and with Hezbollah it's like you know when Israel in when Israel tries to take out Hezbollah
1:12:04
in southern Lebanon everyone clutches their pearls and acts as if what's happening is that the
1:12:10
Israeli is that Israeli aggressors are are invading innocent Hezbollah areas and disrupting these Hezbollah
1:12:19
actors who were simply mining their own business firing rockets into Israel getting on with their
1:12:24
lives trying to kill as many Israelis as they can and then Israel comes in uninvited and tries to
1:12:32
interfere with the innocent Hezbollah people who were just sitting their firing rockets on Israel
1:12:38
what gives Israel stop being the aggressor just let the Hezbollah people live in peace firing
1:12:45
rockets on you it's their favorite pastime the this is the the final communicate from the Arab the
1:12:54
Arab peace initiative being reinstantiated at a conference in Cairo last week we condemn Israeli
1:13:01
violations it says and demand that Israel withdraw completely from Lebanon to internationally recognized
1:13:05
borders release prisoners from the recent war and adhere to the 1949 arms disagreement again
1:13:12
rather rich coming from the Arab states that Israel respect internationally recognized borders
1:13:19
of sovereign countries because of course all of the Arab states that invaded Israel in 1948 and
1:13:26
1973 and 1970 and 1967 and 1973 they all they're they're scrupulous aren't they about respecting
1:13:35
the internationally recognized borders of sovereign states we reaffirm goes on the communicate
1:13:41
that the Golan Heights are occupied Syrian territory reject Israel's annexation and
1:13:45
imposition of sovereignty okay so the Golan Heights I mentioned that they're militarily
1:13:51
significant because you can fire onto Israel and that they only the only reason why Syria would want
1:13:57
the Golan Heights which is only 1% of its total land area is so that it can fire on Israel which
1:14:03
it was doing terribly enthusiastically prior to losing them to Israel in 1967 after Syria started the war
1:14:11
along with its Arab allies in addition to the military advantage it's just worth understanding
1:14:15
that from an Israeli perspective the Golan Heights are critical to its water security
1:14:20
the Sea of Galilee which is Israel's largest fresh water reservoir is fed by streams that
1:14:28
originate in the Golan so whoever controls the Golan Heights controls the water that feeds into
1:14:34
Israel's largest fresh water supply let me end here because I'm waffling I would just say this
1:14:44
this is completely typical of the best kind of coverage that you can expect from the progressive
1:14:50
legacy media I'm not picking on this article because it's particularly bad I'm picking on this
1:14:56
article because it's particularly ununique because it's actually about as good as you can expect
1:15:01
most of the other coverage is more biased against Israel and I on one level I get it I mean I get
1:15:09
it there's only so many babies being pulled out of a rubble that you can see on your social
1:15:13
media feed without allowing that to emotionally contaminate your analysis of the events that gave
1:15:19
rise to the conflict it's very very very hard for me as well to muster any sympathy for a country
1:15:27
that is undertaking the barbarism that Israel has been for the past 18 months but it's necessary
1:15:35
it's necessary if we don't want to devolve into war and tribes here in the west not abroad
1:15:43
here in the west where we don't understand where our fellow countrymen are coming from when they
1:15:50
articulate a point of view that is different from our own there is lacking from any of this coverage
1:16:01
an understanding that we seem to bring to every other conflict which is that losers don't get to
1:16:06
dictate the terms of the end of a war and I'm not just talking about Gaza I'm talking about the
1:16:13
relentless wars that the Arab world has consistently launched against Israel since its conception
1:16:25
like it is gallingly unjust that Russia will probably have a say in the makeup of Ukraine
1:16:35
that is offensive what we want and what we're unashamed about saying that we should want is for
1:16:44
the aggressor to lose for Putin to go home with his tail between his legs for him to lose all of the
1:16:50
land that he's taken in Ukraine and ideally lose some of Russia as well in an ideal universe
1:16:56
Ukraine would take back Crimea and probably bite off a chunk of Russia proper as well that would be
1:17:02
the just solution you push tanks across the border of your neighbors you try to wipe them out you
1:17:08
try to take them over you try to kill their women and children and oppress them and absorb them
1:17:14
into your country and drive them out of their land no when you lose you get crushed and we take your
1:17:21
shit as well that is the the just instinct when it comes to every conflict apart from conflicts
1:17:29
involving the Jews when the Arabs invade the Jews in 1948 or 1967 or 1973 everyone wants it to
1:17:38
come back to a draw like this Arab peace initiative in this communique from Egypt last week being
1:17:47
covered in incredibly bafflingly naive and glowing terms by the Middle East correspondent for
1:17:54
Australia's national publicly funded news source as if it's a legitimate peace plan which is
1:18:02
only stalled because of Israeli intransigence it's right there in the headline this plan would end
1:18:07
the Israel Palestinian conflict but Israel doesn't like it yeah well you know what else would end
1:18:12
the Israel Palestinian conflict me giving a blowjob to every Arab leader and like Benjamin Netanyahu
1:18:18
bending over for them it's not going to happen it's not realistic it is not a real offer
1:18:25
it's rhetorical and here we have the most authoritative news source in the country treating it like
1:18:30
it's a real thing a real thing that is noble and that is only being thwarted by those filthy stinking
1:18:37
Jews ideally we'd like Ukraine to take back Crimea and for Putin to lose in 1967 an analogous
1:18:47
thing happened the big powerful bullies did try to wipe out the little country Putin really did
1:18:56
invade in 1967 only his name wasn't Putin his name was all of the Arab states and in place of
1:19:02
Crimea it was Israel in that instance Ukraine won and Putin lost decisively and what did Ukraine do
1:19:11
it took pieces of Russia that's what happened in 1967 that's why Israel sitting on top of the
1:19:18
Golan Heights and that's why Israel sitting on top of the Palestinian territories and it
1:19:24
subsequently gave it a reasonable shot on several occasions to try to at least hand back the
1:19:28
Palestinian territories because it recognized the injustice of that but the Golan like the idea
1:19:34
that there is some easy solution here is based on a moral calculus that is completely absent
1:19:43
in every other conflict the Vladimir Putin's of 1967 really did lose the war and they lost the land
1:19:52
too suck it up so here you have an article where the Arab states are presented as being completely
1:20:01
blameless the jihadists who run the enclave in question Gaza don't exist except for in one paragraph
1:20:11
the garsans who voted for the jihadists and support them are assumed to I don't know what is
1:20:21
being assumed here I think it's being assumed that they will be absorbed into Tel Aviv's gay
1:20:26
nightlife scene and will happily take orders from Israel's female CEOs and that's going to work
1:20:36
this plan would end the Israel Palestinian conflict but Israel doesn't like it the headline says
1:20:43
the only problem as it always has been for thousands of years the only problem in achieving peace
1:20:50
is the Jews that's the objective impartial news from your national public broadcaster enjoy it
1:21:01
I will see you next week